The Next Generation of ODST
by BattleFrontline
Summary: The Covenant have invaded Earth and have caused mass panic and destruction in their wake, leaving a group of teenagers stranded on the front lines. They must fight for their lives and survive or die trying to get out of the city.
1. Chapter 1: The Storm

_Disclaimer: This story is purely a work of fiction and meant as nothing more than a simply fan made story relating to Halo. Halo and its characters and concepts and designs are owned by Microsoft and their workers over at 343 industries and the previous owners Bungie. All other characters and ideas belong to me and anything connected to real life is a complete coincidence._

 **The Next Generation of ODST**

Prologue:

 _Present Day, on the bridge of the UNSC Redemption._

"You know I never wanted this right?"

"Sir?"

"I was just a teenager, we all were… we all lived a normal life. Going to high school, our classes, doing homework, heading home and messing around, whether it was wondering who was going to bring who to homecoming, or laughing at a mistake that a freshmen made. You know what I am talking about right ensign?"

"I… I believe so sir."

"You believe so? Well, ensign let me tell you a story then, one that will change your view on life for the rest of your days." He said as he picked up a data pad.

Chapter 1: The Storm

 _October 20, 2552._

"Beep Beep Beep" went the alarm clock at 6am earning a tired groan from the person in the bed.

"Joe get up now!" shouted a voice from downstairs.

"I am up mom!" replied a tired but awake teenager. As I sat up in my bed, I muttered "No one is up the second their alarm goes off mom…" to myself. After that I continued with my usual routine of getting dressed, brushing my teeth, brushing my hair, eating breakfast, getting on the bus, and going to school.

It was a normal day, the first hour passed without a problem, as did the second hour. However, it was third hour, during my physics class where my life changed forever. It was a dark day, a storm was raging outside, rain and thunder were heard all throughout the building. The one sound no one expected to hear, though, was the sound of an explosion.

The whole building felt the tremors left behind by the explosion. Then there was the sound no one could forget, the sound we had all heard before, whether it was from a game, a movie, or a TV show. It was the sound of gunfire. Naturally, everyone ran to the window to try and see what was happening. When we got to the window we saw something terrifying, something that shouldn't have been there. "The Covenant…" I whispered.

" _How is this even possible?"_ I thought, " _They aren't supposed to have reached Earth yet!"_. By the time I realized it, we had all noticed something falling out of the sky. I recognized them instantly, the drop pods of the United Nations Space Command ODST marines, also known as Helljumpers due to them dropping from low orbit to the planet. The pods hit the ground proceeding to shake the school even more. The doors, or rather the hatches, popped off, some of them even managed to hit a few of the Covenants troops. Out came the feared ODSTs, the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers of the UNSC, the best humanity has to offer besides the legendary Spartans teams.

They then proceed to do what they were trained for, efficiently and quickly disposing of enemy forces with extreme prejudice. The football field quickly became a glowing field of blue, green, and orange as the ODSTs and Covenant exchanged fire. Everyone was either too scared or oblivious to realize that there was a big glowing green ball of plasma flying in the very room I was in.

"Everybody down!" I shouted.

It was too late. The plasma connected with the concrete wall and exploded in a brilliant shower of green plasma and blackened concrete, knocking me unconscious. I soon regained consciousness to the sound of groans and screams. I stood up and realized I was the only one that was, for the most part, unhurt.

"Ahhhh!"

I whipped around and heard a sound I knew all too well. The Covenant had made it inside the building and were proceeding to kill anyone they encountered. " _I can't help them, at least not now, not without a weapon. There's got to be a way out of here."_ As I looked around I noticed that the blast had made part of the floor collapse onto the second floor. " _Ah ha! There you are."_ I then slid down the floor, trying to ignore the blood covered debris and the bodies embedded in the rubble or crushed underneath it. I then proceeded to the doorway and peeked my head around the doorframe in order to spot any survivors and or Covenant forces. What I saw scarred me for the rest of my life. Fellow classmates lied in pieces, whether it was from an explosion of plasma or the recognizable cut of the infamous energy sword used by the Sangheili otherwise known as the Elites, a race of humanoid creatures with four jaws earning them the nickname Split Chins and SquidFace.

I shook my head, paid my respects and moved on. There was a stairwell to my left about two classrooms down. It was going to be risky but I had nothing else to lose. Besides, that stairwell had an exit that lead to the football field, which was where I had last seen the ODSTs at. If anyone could help me it was them, unless of course I ran into a Spartan team or something but that was impossible.

I proceeded down the hallway staying in a slightly crouched combat stance in case I was spotted or needed to defend myself. I made it to the stairwell with no problems and proceeded down the stairs to the first floor. I peeked my head around the corner again to check and see if there were any Covenant there, however, I was again met with the blood filled hallways of the newly destroyed high school. I payed my respects and went out the exit and into the storm. I looked around and saw that there were craters, bodies, as well as pools of blood of both the aliens and humans alike, debris, and there in the stormy clouds I saw the familiar shapes and weapons firing of the Covenant and UNSC navy which were engaged in ship to ship combat.

However as I looked to my left I saw something that I never thought I'd get to see up close, an ODST. I ran over to the ODST and grabbed ahold of his head to try to speak to him. "Hey, can you hear me? Hello?". He didn't reply, so I then began looking for the helmet's emergency release switch, the rain making it difficult. Needless to say, I eventually found it and removed the helmet and saw his face. He didn't look much different from me, having very dark (though there were quite a few strands of white and gray) hair, white skin, and the facial features of a strong man. He also appeared to be the same height as me. I then checked his pulse hoping he was just unconscious… I was wrong, he was indeed dead.

I then looked at the area surrounding him. In his right hand he held the UNSC BR-55 Heavy Barrel, also know as the Battle Rifle, a select fire rifle with Single Shot, Three-round Burst, and Full Auto settings, which used 9.5x40mm ammunition from a 36 round magazine with a Trijicon ACOG-style optic. A beauty of a rifle, deadly at any range. I then looked at the equipment clipped to the marine's belt, seeing two fragmentation grenades and a M6C/SOCOM, the equivalent to a silenced magnum. I also noticed the ODST's specialized rucksack which was laid against the wall, containing ammo and medical supplies. I then checked the armor itself which was mostly gray but with a faded blue stripe on the right arm, the right leg and the center of the chest piece.

It appeared to be the Recon armor set which is only given to the ODSTs, used by the Office of Naval Intelligence, often called ONI. The armor itself appeared to be in great condition, with no visible damage that breached the suit, however I did notice what appeared to be the battalion number, the 501st, scratched into the right side of the chest plate. I grabbed the helmet which had the same faded blue stripe on the top of the helmet. I then looked into the silver blue visor and saw my reflection, it was then and there I knew what needed to be done.

 _Authors Note: Well... this is my first story to ever be posted and_ _originally_ _t_ _his story was never meant to be read by the public. However some of my friends really wanted me to post this and they finally wore me down. As of right now I have another 6 chapters ready to be posted in case you guys actually like this. So if you guys want more and could give me feedback that amazing. ~BattleFrontline_


	2. Chapter 2: Smith

Chapter 2: Smith

 _Later that same day._

I set to the task of removing the armor which would have been made easier had it not been raining. Eventually I was able to remove all the armor, leaving me with the task of removing the under suit. Normally you wouldn't need to worry about taking the under suit, but these aren't normal marines. The under suit is what allows the armor to interface and work together with the wearer. The under suits are skin tight so it was a bit of a challenge to take it off but I was able to get it off eventually.

However due to the suit being skin tight I had to strip down into my underwear in order to put on the under suit. Once it was on, I started moving around in order to get a feel for it. The under suit by itself was remarkably comfortable and breathable, similar to those thermal clothes you have to wear in the winter. I then set to the task of reconnecting the armor pieces to the under suit, a job that was actually much easier than taking them off.

I then picked up the helmet and once again looked into the helmet's visor, saying, "Well it's just you and me now, huh?" I then turned the helmet back around and slid it over my head slowly, waiting for the suit to lock onto the helmet and seal into place. I soon heard the hiss of the helmet sealing, and then I was stuck in a dark helmet. All of a sudden, the helmet interior lit up in a bright blue flash. Lines of code and programs began to flash across the screen in the same shade of blue, blinding me. After a few more seconds a few lines of text popped up. ' _All suit functions: Operational. Warning: no weapons detected'_. Reading that I decided to reach down and pick up the BR and other equipment. Once I did that, the text disappeared from the hud, then all of a sudden there were 3 new things being displayed.

The weapons, along with their ammo count were displayed in the bottom right hand corner of the hud. In the bottom left hand corner of the hud, the number of grenades and grenade types were laid out. Finally at the top of the hud, my health and a directional pointer, showing that I was currently facing the North, were displayed. I then decided to test the Visual Intelligence System, Reconnaissance which is also simply known as VISR, which is used to provide tactical data whenever and however available, whether it's through a city's secure files or the UNSC battle net.

This also appeared to be the latest version as I noticed that there was a line of texting off to the left stating that ' _Low-vision enhancement: not available.'_ That setting is basically night vision and outlines various things in various colors depending on what it is, for example friendlies are outlined in green and hostiles are in red.

Once I knew that all the functions were indeed operating correctly, I decided that it was time that I started moving out and try to find any survivors, whether they were UNSC or fellow classmates. I looked off towards the football field, I could still make out the flashes of a fire fight going on. I then looked back at the school, thinking about how some of my classmates and friends could still be in there. I looked back at the glowing football field, which held my best chance of survival. "Well I'm going to regret this later, aren't I?" I muttered as I began my search through the demolished high school.

Once in the building I was greeted with darkened hallway prompting me to turn on the low-level vision enhancement. Once I turned it on, I regretted it instantly. I was now able to see all the bodies in perfect detail. I shook my head and continued on my way, checking each and every room I could find. Finding no one, I decided to move on to the next hallway. However when I peeked around the corner I saw two elites talking amongst themselves. They keep pointing and the way to their left. I looked over and saw a student laid up against the wall holding their side, while looking at the two aliens with a look of pure hatred in their eyes.

I raised my battle rifle, taking aim at one of the Elites' heads. ' _Hmm, I wonder if they turned off their shields… probably not knowing my luck.'_ I thought, switching my rifle's firing mode to single shot. I took a deep breath to steady my aim and then, I pulled the trigger. The elite's head flashed in a color of blue, and then I heard their war cry. "Well, I freaking called it." I muttered as I quickly switched my gun to fully automatic, pulling the trigger yet again. The elites roared again and pulled out their energy swords. However one of their shields proceeded to fail and I took the opportunity to take the headshot.

The elite went down with a boom, his colleague going into a full sprint at me. My gun then made the sound all soldiers fear. _Click click click_. The clip was empty. I quickly darted my eyes between the gun and the elite who was about to ram. "Well crap-" Was all I had time to say before I was thrown against a wall. The elite wasted no time in rushing up to me and grabbing me by the throat, lifting me up so I was just a bit taller than him. My feet however were at least 8 inches off the ground and I'm 5' 6". Not to mention his sword was aimed directly at my heart. I tried to pull his massive hand off my throat, but to no avail.

"Pathetic humans, your destruction is the will of the gods! And we are their instrument." He said.

"Really… Gods?" I managed to wheeze out. "I… think… it's… their… will… that… you...die!" I managed to reply. I gave up trying to pry his grip and let my arms dangle.

"You dare insult not only me, but also the gods? Tell me worm, what makes you think I'll die?" He responded.

"This…" I replied. I grabbed the pistol from its magnetic clamp and shoved it underneath his chin and fired. Since the barrel was touching the actual armor, the shield did nothing to protect its user from the armor piercing round that tore it's way through alien metal and brain alike. Then, gravity took care of the rest, bringing the big alien corpse to the ground. Now able to breath I decided to catch my breath. I looked down and saw the energy sword the elite was carrying. I picked it up and threw it into my rucksack, then jogged over to the classmate to see who it was. To my surprise it was one of my life long friends, Thomas Smith. Thomas, though we usually call him Smith, is a bit of a redhead and white. He is about 6' and is relatively strong so he's not thin but not big either, we both were 18 and he probably knows weapons and equipment better than I do.

"Thanks-" cough "for the-" cough "rescue." he managed to say.

"Hey, anytime." I then depolarized my visor so he could see my face.

"Joe, what are you-" cough "doing in that armor?".

"Somebody needed to save your sorry behind." I responded, as I started looking him over checking for injuries.

"Yeah… That tends to happen doesn't it?" He managed to say without coughing.

"It does. Well looks like your ribs are bruised if not broken." I replied.

"Dang… I hate those alien-" cough.

"Come on," I said as I picked him up and leaned him on my shoulder. "We need to find the others or some of the UNSC forces."

"Agreed." He managed to say.

"Here take my pistol," I said as I reached down and grabbed it. "And cover me will ya?" I said as I handed him my pistol.

"I thought you'd never ask. Man, just like the old days of Airsoft huh?"

"Yeah, except this time we have real guns." I told him. He tried to laugh but his ribs hurt too much. Together we turned the corner and prepared ourselves for a fire fight. Instead of seeing a horde of aliens we found an actual ODST drop pod in the middle of the hallway. We got over to it as quickly as we possibly could. I set Smith down so I could open the hatch. I found the emergency release switch, stood off to the side so I could avoid getting hit with a flying door, then pulled the switch.

Looking inside I discovered medical supplies, such as biofoam, adrenaline shots, and painkillers. There was also some spare ammo for my weapons and actual weapons, including the famous M7S Caseless Submachine Gun and the M6C. Just as I turned my head to tell Smith what I discovered, a reflection caught my eye. It was another set of ODST armor, but it was on a rack… no wearer. Though weird, I wasn't going to complain.

"What's in there Joe?" I heard Smith say.

"Your birthday present." I responded blatantly.

"Dude that was 2 months ago." He complained.

"So you don't want a ODST suit and your favorite weapon? The-"

"The M7S Caseless Submachine Gun complete with a silencer?!" He interrupted.

"You know it." I replied "also found some meds for those broken ribs."

"Hand it all over man."

"Haha, I knew you'd come around." I responded, as I passed him the needed medical supplies, putting the rest off to the side. I then dug into the ammo and weapons, throwing the M7S and the M6C at Smith which he managed to catch. As I began to collect the ammo for our guns, Smith threw the pistol I let him borrow at me.

"Think fast!" I heard Smith shout.

"What?" was all I managed to say before "ouch!"

In a fit of laughter he managed to say, "I told you to think fast, and you're wearing a suit of armor how'd that even hurt!?"

"And you're back to your old self again," I threw him the undersuit and the armor. "Now put all this on, you'll need it.". As he set to work putting all his gear on, I filled his rucksack with the ammo he needed and supplies, doing the same with mine. Once everything was packed and ready we noticed that there were two spare weapons in the pod, an M90 Close Assault Weapon System (a shotgun) and the SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle along with 3 more M6S's.

"Well… what the heck are we supposed to do with these?" asked Smith.

"You grab the rifle and attach it to your back, I'll do the same with the shotgun and the pistols." I responded. As we set to attaching the weapons to the armor I had a thought. "Hey Smith?"

"Yeah Joe?"

"We have magnetic clamps on both sides of waists, right?"

"Last time I checked yeah, why?"

"Akimbo." I said as I held the two pistols in the typical raised form.

"Nice dude, it fits you."

"I know right? Anyways let's see if we can find anyone else, or more supplies. You can never have too many bullets."

"Haha, ain't that the truth."

"Indeed it is, let's get moving then." I said as we began to search the school.

 _Authors Note: Well the first chapter seemed to be pretty well_ _received, a lot more people read it then I expected so you guys rock! Thank you,Kickinstorm and ASSNxGoDz for following the story! And thanks ASSNxGoDz for the review, and yes I will post the other 6 (I typed up another chapter) due to the amazing support form you readers, I honestly never expected so many people to read this. Currently it looks like I'll be posting Thursday's almost every other week. In the mean time, enjoy the chapter and enjoy the rest of your day everyone!_

 _BattleFrontline signing off_


	3. Chapter 3: Suprise

**Chapter 3: Surprise**

We decided that it'd be faster to search the school if we went two rooms at a time. Of course there was a greater risk of one of us dying but, we were kids in a real war, we wanted that thrill and man did we get it. As we continued our search pattern throughout the school, we heard a crash up ahead in one of the classrooms on the left. By now we had learned how a lot of our systems worked in the suit, so we used our private comm channel.

"What the heck was that?" I heard Smith say.

"Probably just debris falling but let's go check it out." I responded. When we reached the door to the classroom, Smith stood at the left side of the door while I stood at the right. I nudged my head in the direction of the door, signaling Smith to open it. He got the hint and attempted to use the door. It was locked. He looked at me, I knew what he wanted to do. I nodded my head in approval. He took position in front of the door and then proceeded to kick the door down the only way we could, SWAT style. He moved in taking the left while I took the right. Not two seconds later.

"Ouch!" Yelled Smith.

I turned around and trained my weapon on the space above Smith. Who was now lying down on the floor rubbing his helmet. The space above him however was occupied by none other than Thomas Hudson, who was holding what appeared to be a recently bent rebar.

"Hudson?" I said. Hudson was a friend of ours. He was a bit on the short side at 5' 4' but he uses that to his advantage.

"Joe? What the heck are you doing with those weapons and armor? Also," he said, then looked down. "Who'd I just knock upside the head?"

"Who do you think idiot?" Retorted Smith.

"Smithy? Well at least I didn't hurt anyone important." He replied with a big grin.

"One, stop calling me that." Smith said, while he got back onto his feet. "Two, don't make me shoot you."

"Ohh come on Smithy-"

" _Click"_ went the sound of a gun's safety being switched off.

"I mean Smith… it's just a joke." Hudson replied a bit nervously.

"Hudson." I said

"Yo." He replied.

"How good of a shot are you again?"

"Depends on how good you need me to be." He replied with a smile.

"Take this and this." I said as I took the sniper rifle off Smith's back along with one of the spare pistols we had. "We don't have a spare suit so you're going to have to make due without."

"Dude, trust me." He said as he pulled the lever back on the rifle. "I've got no complaints."

"Good, let's move out then." I replied. However as we stepped out of the room.

"So where we going?" Asked Hudson.

"Great question Hudson, hmm. There's probably no one left in the building, I say we go outside." I replied.

"I second that." announced Smith.

"I'll third that" spoke Hudson.

"Alright, let's go out the side door there then." I said as we started moving towards the door I was pointing at.

When we made it outside, we saw what was in store for our adventure. The city along with our school was torn to absolute shreds. The once tall and mighty skyscrapers had all but crumbled back down to Earth. Homes and business were unrecognizable piles of rubble.

"My god…" I heard someone say, to this day I don't know who said it. For all I knew I was the one that said it.

"We need to move, now." I said in a stern voice. "Let's make our way over to the football field, that's where I last saw UNSC forces." With that, we made our way to the football field. As we made our way over, we heard the sound of gun and plasma fire.

"Guess somebody's still home." Said Hudson.

"Agreed, Hudson stay back and provide support, Smith and I are going to move in and assist whoever's there."

"Roger that, hanging back." He replied. While Smith and I proceed to run onto the football field. There laid a graveyard of ODSTs and aliens alike, however the living were aliens which were currently occupied with attacking what appeared to be survivors in the corner of the field.

"Light em up!" I shouted and with that order, the wonderful sounds of a BR, sniper rifle, and M7S filled the air. Half of their force was killed before they even realized they were being shot at from behind. The Covenant survivors started to take cover behind drop pods. However they grouped up behind those pods, so as me and Smith also took cover, I grabbed a grenade from my belt. Using our comms I told him.

"How far can you throw?"

"As far as you want." He responded.

"On my signal." I said, as I tossed the grenade at him and grabbed the other one for myself. "3… 2… 1… Now!". The grenades proceeded to take flight, flying pretty well for grenades. Whether it was because of luck or good aim, we managed to land each of our grenades in the two largest groups. With a satisfying ' _Boom'_ alien bits began to rain down. Soon, the little creatures known as Unggoy were panicking. Nicknamed Grunts, they are the covenants cannon fodder. Able to reproduce at incredible rates, an intelligence a bit on the low side along with their height, and being very easily frightened. They were easy for the Covenant to enslave and incorporate into their forces. What other aliens remaining tried to get them to obey their orders, but it was an impossible task, as whenever a leader poked their head out to yell at them, Hudson made sure they'd "lose their minds" with his sniper rifle which he was obviously enjoying a bit too much. It took five more minutes but we managed to kill all the stragglers.

"Looks like that's all of them Joe." Said Smith.

"Agreed, now let's find out who survived." I replied as we started to move towards the area the Covenant was converging on. As we approached, I thought it'd be a good idea to speak out loud. "Hey? Anybody home? We are here to provide assistance." I explained, however as I said that, a person stepped out from behind a drop pod.

"Joe? Smith?" Replied a feminine voice.

"Matilda?" We both replied in shock.

"Surprise!" She responded. We all know her including Hudson, we've all been friends with Matilda for as long as we've known each other. She's about the same height as me, maybe a half an inch shorter than me so 5' 5.5". Brownish hair, however because of the rain, her soaked hair looked more black. She has light skin, and slim. She was a gamer just like the rest of us, she also has a love for explosions and close quarters combat. However not only were we shocked that she was alive and out here but it was actually because of what she was wearing. "Matilda where the heck did you get that CQB ODST armor?"

"You like it? I've always admired these close quarters suits. Anyways I found it in a supply pod. The ODSTs were too busy fighting the Covenant to notice me put it on, there's also a Sharpshooter set in there, but I see you guys already got armor."

"They do, I don't!" Exclaimed Hudson, who was running towards the group.

"Hudson? Of course you survived, why am I not surprised?"

"You know me all too well." He replied with a cocky grin. "Now where was that armor you mentioned?"

"Over there past that pod right there."

"Sweet, I'll be back in a sec." He replied. As he went off in search of his soon to be set of armor.

"Hey M?" I said.

"Hmm?"

"Got a gun."

"I wish." She replied. I tossed her the shotgun off my back along with the 2nd spare pistol I had. "Ohh man I could freaking kiss you guys!"

"I wouldn't mind that." Smith piped in.

"Of course you wouldn't." I said, while smacking the back of his helmet.

"Hey!" He exclaimed.

"Smith, we are here to survive not to play 'who gets kissed?'" I responded. "Matilda link up to our comms, I'd like to prevent any eavesdropping."

"Whatever you say boss man." She responded while linking up her comms.

"Hudson when you're done goofing off and when you have your armor on, link to our comms!" I shouted, hoping Hudson heard me.

"Roger that Joey." I heard over the comms.

"Hudson I will shoot you." I replied.

"I'd like a piece of that action" Smith joined in.

"Same here" said Matilda.

"Ohh come on what have I done to all of you?" Hudson responded.

"..."

"Okay never mind, Joe, what's the plan?" He said.

"Everyone start collecting supplies and dog tags from those men, I'm not letting anything go to waste. We'll move out in about 5."

"Sir yes sir!" They all replied in unison, as they began to get to work collecting anything we could use. However as they did that, I looked at the stormy sky, still able to see the flashes of weapons in the clouds. We had no idea what we were about to go up against.

 _Author's Note: Man you guys are amazing, the story is doing amazing also and that is just blowing my mind. So if you guys keep the support coming, I'll keep the chapters coming! Anyways that's all for now, so_ _enjoy_ _your_ _day everyone. ~BattleFrontline signing off_


	4. Chapter 4: Lonely Road

**Chapter 4: Lonely Road**

It took only about 10 minutes to collect anything we might need along with the dog tags of the ODSTs. Before we were ready to move on, however, there was still the issue of where we were moving on to.

"I say we head into town," said Hudson.

"Dude we'd be ambushed the second we leave the school yard, I say we stay." Smith joined in.

"Joe?" Asked Matilda, noticing I was looking off into the distance.

"Hmm?" I replied, lost in thought.

"What do you think?" She responded.

"I think… That none of you have looked into your helmet's functions." I replied bluntly.

"And you have?" Hudson asked.

"You should all have a map function, which is currently showing you UNSC and hostile forces across the city." I answered. Sure enough, though, they all checked and they had the map function I mentioned. "Now that you all have figured out how the map works, I say we head towards the nearest UNSC line." I explained.

"Don't get me wrong Joe, I love the idea. But we are currently far behind enemy lines, how the heck are we going to get to the UNSC lines?" Hudson added.

"Who said it was going to be easy?" I shot back. "One way or another we are going to have to fight our way through the Covenant. So let's make something out of our effort to escape. Let's hit any and all Covenant outposts, batteries, bunkers, etc… so who's with me?"

"I think we can all agree that we are going to regret it, but we're all in this together Joe." Matilda said as she placed a hand on my shoulder.

"As touching as this all is," Smith piped in. "I say we start moving out, we need to put a lot of distance between us and the school."

"Agreed, let's move out." I replied. As we all started to walk out of field, we couldn't help but take one last look at the symbol of our school, a tiger. He was painted on the side of the refreshment/ticket booth. His claws extended out in a swiping motion, while he was roaring. We then proceeded to begin our journey down the new lonely roads of our war-torn city. However, it wasn't nearly as quiet as you'd expect it to be.

"Hey, I know we are supposed to be quiet and deadly and all, but I mean seriously this ghost town is giving me the creeps and I need some noise." Hudson said not 5 minutes after we left the school.

"Anyone up for a bit of a classic?" I replied as I started to play _Boulevard of Broken Dreams_ by Green Day.

"Joe where the heck did you find that?" Questioned Smith.

"Remember those features I told you about?"

"Ya?"

"Someone downloaded music onto my helmet."

"Screw you." He replied jokingly.

"Haha" I laughed back, but sure enough the song kept everyone occupied and boosted their moral. However, as the song ended Hudson had an idea.

"Guys, I just had the greatest idea of all time!"

"Is it how to shut your trap?" replied Matilda. Everyone laughed at that comment.

"Haha very funny. No, what we need is: 1) a squad name and 2) code/nicknames for ourselves."

"Hudson that is your smartest idea yet!" Exclaimed Smith.

"I know, I'm a genius." Everyone could just picture the smile behind his visor.

"Well what names have you come up with then, genius?" Asked Matilda.

"Hey just because I'm a genius doesn't mean I have to do all the thinking."

"Everyone come up with your own callsign, and we'll tell you what we think. Same thing goes for when we decide our squad name." I joined in. "However we are not stopping to discuss this so everyone keep moving."

"I call Stinger." Responded Matilda.

"Why stinger? Why not-" started Hudson before he was cut off by Matilda pumping her shotgun and ejecting a shell. "okay, nevermind, I like it. However, that stings 'Stinger'."

"Hudson we're going to call you Chatterbox." Said Smith.

"Oh come on she gets to pick a cool nickname and I get assigned Chatterbox?"

"Yes" We all replied in unison.

"Fine, I won't argue because in all honesty that name couldn't be more right. Haha." he responded with a laugh.

"That just leaves me and Joe then." Said Smith.

"Yeah I guess so." I replied.

"Hmm… I think my callsign should be… shadow… no wait that's stupid." Said Smith. We all nodded in agreement. "How about Sawdust?"

"Sounds good to me." Said Stinger.

"Better than mine." Replied Chatterbox.

"Seems good." I responded.

"What about you Joe? What's your callsign going to be?" Asked Sawdust.

"Hmm… I don't know to be honest. Let me sleep on that."

"Well while you sleep on that, anyone got any squad names?" Asked Chatterbox

"Nope." Replied Stinger

"Neither do I." Replied Sawdust

"Well someone's got to come up with something." Chatterbox said

"Tiger Squad." I said

"Tiger as in the Tiger of our now demolished high school?" Replied Chatterbox.

"Yes." I simply put.

"I can't think of a better or more fitting squad name than that." Spoke Sawdust.

"Same here." Replied Stinger.

"I'm liking it." Chatterbox replied.

"Okay, everyone's got a nickname but me and we have a squad name. Other matters that need to be discussed?" I asked.

"Yeah, I got one." replied Chatterbox who had stopped on top of a pile of rubble and was looking through his scope in the direction we were heading.

"And what's that?" I responded.

"Do we have any idea what we are going to do if we run across a battalion of Covenant troops and heavy armor?"

"No, not really why do you ask?"

"Because we just ran across one. Which just happens to be heading our way."

"Well crap…" I heard someone whisper, probably Sawdust.

"Everyone switch to comms and head for the office building to my left, stay spread out, stay low, and do NOT do anything that will make them notice us." I said. "I'm looking at you Chatterbox." I added.

"Ohh come on it's not always me."

"Yes it is." We all replied in union on the comm. Remembering all the times he ruined our stealth approaches in our games.

"Fine." He agreed.

I made it to the office door first and held it open for the rest of the squad while keeping an eye out for any other signs of our alien friends. Once everyone was inside I closed the door.

"Well what do we do?" Asked Sawdust.

"We can't take them head on, we don't have enough ordinance to take on even two wraiths much less a dozen." Replied Stinger.

"Well it's not like we are someone's stupid story where we do something ridiculously noob like while being cheesy and somehow come on top." Said Chatterbox.

"Or are we…" I said in a low tone.

"What do you mean?" Asked Stinger, apparently the only one who heard me.

"I mean, Chatterbox is right. We aren't someone's story, and we aren't going to do something noob-like and be cheesy."

"Okay, so Chatterbox is right for once, what's that have to do with anything?"

"It means I got a realistic solution to our problem." I replied while looking outside, eyeing the street.

"Ohh and what's that?" Spoke up Chatterbox.

"Stinger, we got four grenades right?"

"Right."

"And how many abandoned cars are outside right now?"

"I don't know at least a dozen or so… ohhh I get it." I could just imagine her smiling her typical evil grin behind her visor.

"Well some of us don't, so care to explain?" Asked Chatterbox.

Stinger and I both looked at each other, and I directed a shrug at her which signaled that she could explain it.

"Okay, so you know how the Covenant are approaching our position?"

"Ya."

"And how we don't have the weapons to take them all out, right?"

"Right."

"Odds are all those cars on the street have a decent amount of gasoline or hydrogen in them right?"

"Ya but what's that have to do with a BATTALION OF ADVANCED ALIEN TANKS AND TROOPS?!"

"What's my favorite thing to do?"

"Blow stuff up but that doesn't…" he paused finally getting it. "Ahhh I get it now, we'll wait until most of them are in the range of the cars, we each throw a grenade igniting the cars, and watch an alien barbecue. I like it."

"Well it's better than nothing." Replied Sawdust.

"Okay Sawdust, Chatterbox run across the street and take cover in the building directly across from us and take these grenades." I said as I handed them each a grenade. "And wait until I give the signal on the comm."

"Why do I have to go with him?" Sawdust said in a joking way while pointing at Chatterbox

"Hey I'm offended!" He responded, while putting his hand over his heart acting like he was actually hurt.

"Just get over there before they get here." And with that they left.

"So, just us now huh?" Said Stinger after turning off her comms.

"Yep" I replied while I too turned off my comms.

"Let's hope they don't blow themselves up."

"Haha yeah. Knowing Chatterbox he'll probably be juggling his grenade while he waits."

"Haha yeah probably."

"Hey Joe?"

"Yeah?"

"You like logic and math right?"

"Love it, why do you ask?"

"What are our odds?"

"Which odds?"

"The odds of us surviving."

"This battle or the war?"

"Both."

"War is not won by number, but rather skill."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"It means that you simply can not win a war with just numbers, it takes skill, morale, and hope to make an army win a war. The odds don't matter, but I do know ALL of us are going to see this war through one way or any other."

"Thanks."

"No problem, anytime. We are all here for each other." Just as we finished our conversation the Covenant reached our position.

"Speaking of time." said Stinger.

"It's showtime." I replied, I then went back to the comm channel. "You guys ready?"

"We were born ready." Replied Sawdust.

"Bet I get the most kills!" Answered Chatterbox.

"Okay on my mark then." I said while eyeing up the Covenant troops. "Five…" out of the corner of my eye I saw Stinger's fingers twitching on the grenade. "Four…" I heard Sawdust whisper something, probably a prayer. "Three…" I saw Chatterbox poke his rifle out of a window. "Two…" I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. "One…" I opened my eyes and exhaled. "Mark!" And with that the grenades flew and there was blinding and deafening boom of a dozen cars and alien explosives all going off at once, last thing I saw was a blinding ball of blue and orange flying at me.

 _Authors_ _Note: Cliffhanger! Man you guys are really liking the story, especially a_ _certain_ _dauntlesforthewin708 who said and I quote "yes! YES! YES! MORE PLEASE!" which made me laugh my head off. However lyndakey_ _1_ _did bring 2 things to my attention. First thing is yes this is my very first time ever posting or writing a story, so I really would love it if you guys gave feedback because I'm not quite sure how good the story is or how far the story is going to go and I may need your guys help. Second thing is yes the dead ODST scene was a bit "confusing" but trust me on what I'm about to say... one day it will all make sense :)_

 _~BattleFrontline signing off_


	5. Chapter 5: Great Balls of Fire

**Chapter 5: Great Balls of Fire**

"Light em up!" I shouted into the comm and with that command, Tiger Squad began firing randomly into the dying ball of orange and blue flames. The familiar booms of Stinger's shotgun and Chatterbox's sniper rifle filled the air. It wasn't long before the aliens realized they walked into an ambush. They began to take cover and tried to figure out where they were being shot from. Soon enough we too had to start taking cover behind our concrete walls in order to avoid their blue and green balls of fire. Even with my helmet on, I could hear hiss of the plasma eating its way through the concrete.

"Joe!" I heard Sawdust exclaim on the team comm channel. "We're pinned down here and we were wondering if you could give us some help."

"We got our own problems Smith!" Stinger replied for me as she popped out from cover and fired her shotgun into a crowd of grunts that were beginning to get close to our building.

"Hey code names, Matilda." He responded. "Joe, these walls aren't going to hold forever-" I then heard a loud boom over the comm. "GOD DANG IT! They're using grenades now! We need assistance and we need it now!"

"I'm open to suggestions!" I responded in kind as a ball of blue flame flew past my face and landed on the ground far from me, which then exploded in a blue flame which actually had a strange beauty to it in a weird, death like way. "Blast, those grenades are bit of a problem huh?"

"Ya think?" Replied Chatterbox in a bit of a sarcastic tone.

"Chatterbox we have been through this I don't think-"

"I know." Finished the rest squad.

"Hey… that's my line." I responded. The squad responded with a quick laugh.

"Ahhh!" Me and the squad heard Matilda yell in pain. I looked over to her and saw her laid out on the floor. I noticed that there was something on the floor that looked like her left shoulder plate. It was however melted beyond recognition. I then looked out my window and fired a few rounds at an elite that poked its head around what appeared to be the destroyed hull of a Wraith. However, his shields deflected the bullets with ease and he ducked back behind the destroyed tank. With that, I too ducked behind cover and dove to the floor landing next to Stinger. I noticed that it looked like some plasma breached her suits shoulder, exposing her newly burnt shoulder.

"Stinger, you alright?" She didn't answer. "Matilda, can you hear me?" Again she didn't reply. " _Crap… she's unconscious. The pain probably caused her to pass out."_ I thought. I started rummaging through my rucksack looking for the burn cream. I managed to find the cream and applied it to Stinger's shoulder, I knew that the cream would sting but she was out cold so she wouldn't notice it, while I did that I reconnected to the teams comm channel. "Sawdust what's your guy's status?"

"Could be a bit better." He replied, the stress audible in his voice. "How's Stinger?"

"She got hit by one of those plasma bolts, she passed out from the pain and has a few burns but otherwise I think she's fine." I replied as I popped out of cover and fired my BR into a jackal whose shield appeared to have malfunction and shut off. He was hitting the thing with his wing/fist when one of my rounds tore through his torso, causing him to collapse on the ground dead.

"Man she's missing out on all the fun then!" exclaimed a rather extremely happy Chatterbox.

"Chatterbox, can you give me a guess on how many hostiles we got left?" I responded.

"Well…" He responded in a little less excited tone. "Assuming that they follow our general numbers for a battalion I'd say we killed about maybe 50 in the initial blast. We've also been in this stalemate for about... oh 10 minutes now and assuming we averaged about 4 kills each per minute. So we've killed another 40 of them making their total number of troops left at about a crap ton of troops left."

"Man, when did you get so good at math Chatter. I'm honestly so shocked at your mathematical ability?" replied Sawdust in a sarcastic tone.

"Thanks for noticing! You know I also thought I could give Einstein a run for his money." Chatterbox in his world famous, trademark sarcastic tone.

"In either case, odds are we'll run out of ammo before we kill them all." I replied as I shot a burst of bullets into an elite, killing it.

"Then we'll pick up their weapons." Suggested Chatterbox.

"Have you ever used an alien weapon before, Chatterbox?" Sawdust answered.

"Well no…"

"Then how do you make one work?"

"You pull the trigger?"

"I'm going to shoot you one day, whether it's on accident or on purpose is yet to be determined."

"I know." He replied in a cheerful tone.

"So, we are running low on ammo, we are cut off from each other, we got a teammate down, and we have no backup whatsoever… anyone got any bright ideas?" I questionedknowing all too well that there was nothing we could do.

"Pray for a miracle?" responded Chatterbox.

"Retreat?" said Sawdust.

"Ohh and where would we go?" replied Chatterbox.

"I don't know but it's better than your idea."

"Hey my ideas are great!"

"Are not."

"Are too."

As the two friends continued to argue and unload their weapons into the cluster of alien soldiers determined to burn us to death, I tried to think… and pray. " _Come on… there has got to be something we can do, something we haven't noticed. Oh Lord you know I'm not much of a religious guy but you gotta help me out here. I am not going to die here and I'm not going to let my friends die here too."_ Then as if to answer my prayer there was silence, both sides stopped firing their weapons.

"Hey does anyone hear that whistling sound?" Sawdust spoke up.

"Yeah... I hear it too." replied Chatterbox.

"I'm hearing something that sounds like thunder." I responded, and then it clicked. "Guys take cover now!" I shouted, and then time slowed down. A million thoughts racing through my head, a million wishes and regret came forward in a massive tidal wave of emotion. However through this fog of emotion, one thought was clear. "Matilda! _"_ And it was with that thought I realized that Matilda was still unconscious and was of course unaware of the danger that was about to unfold. I was less than a foot away from her and it took less than a second for me to grab her by the handle embedded in her back armor piece, and start to drag her away from the window. Then all of a sudden there was a flash, blinding me even though my visor was attempting to block out the light. Then I felt something push me forward, and whatever it was… it was HOT. It was then I heard the boom, and then time decided to speed back up again. Before I knew it I was flying across the room where I was met with a sharp pain the back of my skull, causing me to black out yet again.

 _Authors Note: Hello everyone! I'm back with another chapter, ya! So thank you Kivdon for bring the fact I'm going too fast to my attention. I will try and slow down the chapters I already have written up and keeping that in mind for new chapters as they are written. Also I agree with you about the whole "magazine" and "clip" fiasco, so don't worry about me making that mistake XD. Now one thing I would like to mention is that you guys, the readers are so amazing! Without you guys loving the story I wouldn't be sitting here typing this up, I would probably be bored out of mind right now. So one thing I do want to try and do is give back to you guys as much as possible, for example giving a shout out every chapter, or having you guys come up with OC's, or plot recommendations, and or etc... anyways that's all I have to talk about today, enjoy the rest of your day everyone and see you guys next chapter!_

 _~BattleFrontline signing off_


	6. Chapter 6: MIA Much?

**Chapter 6: MIA Much?**

It took us 35 minutes but we had finally been able to lose the covenant airships by running in and out of buildings. They eventually got tired of playing hide and seek, so the troop transports decided to land, deploy their troops, and take off to head back to what I can only assume was their nearest base. However, some of the Banshees stayed and were bombing the occasional building in an attempt to draw us out into the waiting clutches of their ground troops. By this time, we had somehow managed to stay generally close to the building where Sawdust and Chatterbox found me.

"I think we lost them…" whispered Chatterbox as we hadn't heard any explosions or alien voices in the past three minutes.

"Why don't you stick your head out and find out?" replied Sawdust.

"And risk becoming a chunk of cooked meat? No thanks, I'll let you do that."

"Well someone's got to do it or else we'll be here all night and we'll never find Stinger."

"She'll be fine."

"How do you know that? She could be unconscious still!" replied Sawdust in an ever increasingly loud tone.

"Why are you so protective of her anyways, huh? Right now there's three of us left, and she'd want us to move on!" Chatterbox also replied in an equally loud voice.

As they continued to argue I just looked out a "window" which was actually just a hole in the wall I had found that allowed me to look outside. The day was starting to become the night and we were running out of time and options.

"Both of you shut up, now." I replied in a slightly louder than whisper voice.

They both looked over at me and as if they had forgotten I was still there, which tends to happen a lot not just with them but with everyone. Matilda and a few other friends always seemed to remember that I was there even if they were in the most heated argument of the century.

"Sorry Joe, forgot you were there." answered a quieter Chatterbox.

"It's alright but I will not let your arguing ruin our chances of survival and finding Matilda." I replied looking at both of them. "Now I got an idea but it's a bit of a risky one."

"I'm all ears Joe." replied Sawdust.

"Same here." answered Chatterbox.

"Alright, here's the plan, it'll be night here in less than an hour. We'll use the night as camouflage and search the area for hostiles and Matilda. Now here's the problem, either Matilda is long gone by now or we are about to walk into a trap."

"Well… it's more exciting than sitting here," replied Chatterbox.

"Best plan we got." answered Sawdust.

"Alright we'll move out when it's night, get ready."

 _About one hour later_

"Alright everyone's got low light mode on right?"

"Right." They both replied in sync.

"Stay low, stay in the shadows, and stay semi close to each other. The last thing we need is a grenade going off and killing us all."

"Roger that." Replied Sawdust.

With that, we emerged from the destroyed building and into the darkness. We looked around and couldn't find any sign of the Covenant or Matilda.

"Anyone find anything?" I asked in the comms after about 10 minutes of searching.

"Negative." replied Sawdust.

"Nothing over here," answered Chatterbox.

"Signs of the Covenant?" I asked, trying to keep them busy while I tired to think up another plan.

"I found a few plasma burns and the occasional dead alien and a few broken weapons." replied Sawdust.

"Same over here, but I think I keep seeing something out of the corner of my visor but there's nothing ever there." Chatterbox responded.

"Probably just a glitch in the helmet, it probably got hit by something and had something get knocked loose." I replied.

"That's probably it. I have been hit by a lot of things today."

"Lets all meet back up in the building we were just at."

"Alright."

"On my way."

I then started making my way back to the building, however, two minutes into my trip back, my visor started picking up something. I stopped and looked around, and saw absolutely nothing but darkness.

"Hey Chatterbox, I got a question for you." I spoke into the comms while looking around.

"..." There was no response.

"Sawdust you there?" I asked in a slightly worried tone as I raised my rifle so that it was level with anything that might run at me.

"..." Again there was nothing.

"Guys this better not be a joke."

"..."

"Well this is just-" I managed to start out before I landed on the ground. "Ouch." Was all that I was able to say due to something heavy lying on my back.

"You will pay for your heretics, worm." Replied a gruff but stern voice. The weight on me disappeared but then I found a massive three fingered hand clutched around my throat lifting me off the ground. The alien which I could now identify as an Elite looked me in the eyes even though my visor's cloud function was on. "There is nothing you can do to stop the Great Journey."

"Again… with this…. Great Journey crap?" I managed to gasp out. "Look… I'll get you… a one way ticket… to your "gods"... just let me go." I choked out with a smile on my face. The alien apparently didn't like my joke as he tightened his grip on my neck, I tried to reach down and grab one of my pistols but I realised they weren't there. " _Dang it, they must have fell off when I hit the ground, no repeats of that first encounter."_

"Your words of treachery, shall not grant you the "break" you require."

"When did... you squid faces... learn sarcasm?" I was trying to rip his hand off my throat but, as expected, it was useless.

"The gods will smile upon me and grant me passage amongst the prophets you pathetic creature."

I locked my eyes in on his arm, realizing that there was no way I was getting out of this alive. Then I heard a " _Boom"_ and saw the aliens eyes roll up, and his grip loosen until I was able to just fall out of his hand. The body then fell over into a pile of blood and flesh. Standing behind the body was the smoking barrel of a shotgun, and the owner of that shotgun was none other than-.

"Matilda?"

"Joe?"

"Man am I glad to see you."

"I can tell, if it weren't for me you'd be the corpse right now."

"I would have been yeah, but hey at least you can say that an elite FELL for you." I replied with a giant smile behind my visor.

"You know, it's not too late for you to join him."

"Haha, yeah it's never too late." I replied as I put my hand on her undamaged shoulder. "I'm glad you're alright though."

"Same here. How are the guys holding up?"

"Hudson is… well… Hudson, and Smith, he was worried more than he'll admit."

"Sounds about right, but what happened? After I got shot I mean?"

"Well… I applied some burn cream to your shoulder and went back into the fight. We were starting to get overrun, and then, out of nowhere, we heard the whistling of missiles heading our way. I grabbed you by the handle and tried to drag you behind cover but the missiles went off and I lost you and got knocked unconscious. When I came to, I was under a pile of rubble with disabled comms. So I decided to try and shoot my way out. Smith and Hudson heard my gunshots, ran over, and found me." I then looked at the alien body. "Then we got chased by our friends here and went looking for you."

"Sounds like I missed out."

"You sure did, what about you?"

"Woke up not that long ago maybe 5-10 minutes ago and started looking for you guys, nothing exciting, except for the fact that they are setting up jammers and using their active camo."

"Ahh so that's why comms just dropped and that guy came out of nowhere."

"Pretty much."

"Just great… well we better get going, we need to see if the others made it to our little hideout."

"Alright, let's get going."

"Hold on I need to find my guns first." I said while looking around, waiting for my hud to outline my lost weapons in yellow.

"What is up with you and losing stuff?"

"Hey it's not my fault I kept getting knocked out." I replied as my hud found my weapons and I walked over to reclaim them. "At this rate I'll probably have brain trauma."

"Got everything now?"

"Yeah."

"Then let's go."

"Fine, let's go and see if the guys are alright."

 _5 minutes later_

"Well crap…" I replied as I walked in the building that was providing a shelter to me and my friends.

"Did we maybe just get here before them?"

"Nah, I doubt it. They were patrolling the area closest to here. Now that I think about it, Hudson said something about his hud glitching out. My hud was acting up the same way before that Elite tackled me so it sounds like he was being followed by a cloaked elite too. So the odds are Smith was probably being tailed too."

"What are the odds that they're dead?"

"You know I hate answering those types of questions." I replied bluntly.

"I also know you don't have to do-" She started to answer before I cut her off.

"Don't worry about me, worry about yourself."

"Then who's going to worry about you and the others?"

"Me."

"Joe we both know-"

"I said dont worry."

"Joe… you can't keep doing this."

"I can and I will. You are the only one that knows so don't make me regret telling you it."

"This war will only make it worse."

"When did you become a shrink?"

"When you started shutting us out."

"Well right now we have more important issues. We have two friends who are MIA and until we find their ice cold corpses we are going to say they are alive."

"Well in that case we've already been MIA twice."

"Yay, maybe we should call ourselves _The Missing Squad_ that way we'll already be missing."

"You are really bad at jokes." she laughed out, causing me to smile.

"It made you laugh didn't it?"

"Fine, but can we please find the guys. This place is really boring and there's no action here."

"You were knocked out during all the previous action."

"Hey! Not my fault I got shot."

"Yes it is."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is." I replied as we started walking out of the building to search for more MIA squad members.

 _10 minutes later_

We had been searching for Smith and Hudson for the past 10 minutes and we still hadn't found them nor had we stopped arguing about whose fault it was that Matilda got shot. She had just finished listing off a list of reasons that "proved" it wasn't her fault and I was about to responded when I tripped and fell.

"You are just accident prone today Joe." Replied Stinger with a light laugh while offering a hand to help pull me back up.

"Yeah, what'd I trip on though?" I replied surveying the ground around me. Since it was night and since the rain stopped hours ago my hud was set to its low light mode which highlighted a piece of equipment that caused my fall. I reached down and picked it up.

"Is that?"

"Ya…" It was Smith's helmet.

"Is his…?" Started to ask Stinger as I turned the helmet upside down to look inside.

"No it's empty." I said with a breath of relief. Relieved that I didn't have to witness a head roll out of a helmet. "Well if the helmet's here, and there's no body the odds are he's alive."

"But didn't you mention that Hudson was patrolling this area, not Smith's?"

"Yeah."

"Then what's Smith's helmet doing here?"

"Good question… maybe they decided to group up or maybe Smith heard a gunshot and came running."

"Maybe…"

"Look, we will find them."

"How many times have you said that today?"

"More times than I'd like to admit…"

 _Authors Note: Hello everyone! Hows everyone been? I hope you guys have been doing well, life has gotten very busy lately so I've been busy running around so I apologize for any errors I missed. I will try my best to make the proper fixes to the next chapter in order to help slow down the story more and develop the plot more. Also again (sorry I probably sound like a broken record but) you guys are the best! Thank you so much for enjoying the story and letting me know that such as, VampiricShadow who said "_ _Jesus Kivdon. This is the second time I've written a comment directed to you today. Anyways, this is a great story so far and I'm enjoying it.", funny how you keep running into Kivdon lol. Hmm I think that's everything for today, enjoy the rest of the day everyone!_

 _~BattleFrontline signing off_


	7. Chapter 7: Breakout the Memories

**Chapter 7: Breakout the Memories**

 _Matilda's POV_

We began to continue searching the surrounding area for anymore evidence of Smith and Hudson. During this time, I couldn't help but look back on the time we all had shared together. I remembered back when we all had first met each other as kids. All of our parents had been friends in highschool, so one day they got us all together for a "play date" and we were all in Smith's living room playing on some console game where we had to shoot aliens and stuff in space. Joe was always throwing grenades around because he didn't know how to aim or shoot, Smith, on the other hand, was always spraying and praying, Hudson was always snipping from some camping spot, while I was running around with close quarters weapons.

"Ha ha… those we the days…" I said out loud accidentally.

"What'd you say Matilda?" replied Joe.

"Nothing just talking out loud to myself."

"I thought that was my job." he replied in a sarcastic tone.

"It's a shared job, Joe." I replied also in a sarcastic tone. Then I proceeded to continue my little trip down memory lane. I remember when we were all playing airsoft together and one time started firing on each other just for laughs. I remember the first time Joe played airsoft with us. It was hilarious. His gun jammed the first time he pulled the trigger, so he decided to run around the field as a decoy and scout so we could sneak up and take out the other team. Funny how we were all kids back then always dreaming about war and yet here we were in one, putting all of us through our own different challenges.

After 20 more minutes of searching we had found no further trace of our missing friends.

"Find anything Joe?"

"Negative you?"

"No signs of them… where could they be Joe?"

"I wish I knew Matilda… I wish I knew…"

Then all of a sudden something caught my attention. Something so small I completely overlooked it until I was right on top of it.

"Joe, can you come to my location? I'm sending you the coords."

"Ya sure." he replied looking at the coordinates I had just sent him. "I'm on my way, I'll be there in minute. Whats up?"

"I think I may either be onto something or I'm becoming delusional."

"I thought you were already delusional." he replied sarcastically.

"No, Joe, you are delusional." I replied back with an equally sarcastic tone.

"Well that's good to know." he replied jokingly as he snuck up behind me, and grabbed me by the shoulders, while shaking me causing me to to jump.

"Ahh!" I screamed as he bursted out laughing. "Really Joe?!"

"Come on, without Hudson here someone's got to lighten the mood."

"I think you should just leave that to him."

"Fair enough… anyways what'd you find?"

"Look at this." I replied as I stuck my arm straight out in front of myself causing my arm to disappear into thin air. I stared at the empty space where my arm should have been. "Well? Am I going crazy or are you seeing this too?"

"I think you just discovered a Covenant Cloaking spire."

"Cloaking spire?"

"Yes, the Covenant uses them to hide all sorts of things; bases, troops, ships, transports, tanks, supplies, you name it. Of course, I've only heard rumors of them on the net due to ONI and UNSC keeping as much of the war a secret as possible."

"Well then… let's find out what this one's hiding." I said as walked through the invisible wall.

"Wait! Once you walk through-" Joe started as I walked through the invisible wall, cancelling out his voice. As I passed through the wall as if it were air, and was welcomed by the sight of something truly terrifying. Joe then quickly followed behind me and tried to finish what he was telling me.

"As I was trying to say, once you walk through you get hit with an emp and lose all comms to the outside-" he froze, interrupted by the sight that laid before me.

A massive purple spire rose into the sky, with a blue hue at the top which was creating the clocking shield. Which had spot lights mounted to it, which were constantly surveying the land around the glowing purple complex which laid at the base of the spire. We were a distance away from the base so we couldn't quite see all the activity going on down there, but we could see the sniper towers that were deployed along its perimeter.

"Joe…"

"Yeah…?"

"We are screwed."

"Yup."

"Smith and Hudson are probably down there."

"Yeah but-" since it was still night the spotlights were actively scanning the area for any intruders, one of which was heading right for us. "Down!" Joe whispered as he pushed me down to the ground.

"Hey!" I yelped.

"Shh!" he replied as the spotlight's beam passed over us and continued its ever lasting search for prey.

"That was close..."

"Too close. If we get caught we'll join Smith and Hudson down there either in a cell or in a grave. Take your pick."

"I'd prefer the grave."

"So would I, but that's not going to get them out of there."

"How do you know if they're even down there? Much less alive?"

"After we lost you I turned on a squad function in my helmet allowing me to keep an eye on everyone's vitals and their general where abouts depending on proximity. Smith and Hudson activated theirs so I can see that their down there and alive. Speaking of which you might want to turn on that feature incase we lose you again."

"So you bugged us?" I asked while turning on the feature.

"No, it's a standard function in all ODST armor sets. I simply turned it on."

"Alright… so how are we going to get them out of there then, because right now that base looks more defended than Fort Knox."

"Simple, we break them out."

"But HOW are we going to do that?"

"We'll split up, since you have the shotgun you'll go in first and try to rescue them while I stay behind you and provide support. However this is going to require a fair bit of stealth so use your M6C pistol, as it has an integrated silencer on it but DO NOT use the shotgun unless absolutely necessary."

"Me? Alone? How far back will you be?"

"You'll be fine, as for how far back? Since my rifle has a maximum range of 950 meters… I'd say that I'd be about 400 meters back. That way I can keep an eye on you and any hostiles but still be close enough to help if need be." He replied as he began to stand up and walk away.

"Joe this is suicide and you know it." I replied as I reached to grab him by the arm, standing up in the process.

"Come on it's me, we're talking about here. We'll be fine." He said as he pried my hand off of his arm. Joe then turned around and spread out my arms. "Besides I got someone who better be watching my back while I'm watching theirs."

"What if that someone doesn't?" I replied crossing my arms as we walked way from where we entered.

"Then I guess I'll have no choice but to come back so I can kick their rear end into the line of fire." he answered as we disappeared into the shadows.

 _Authors Note:_

 _"OMG BATTLE IS ALIVE SOMEBODY PINCH ME!" (Screams random fan) Yes I am alive everyone, first off I would like to deeply apologize for my absence, truth is I could give you guys a thousand reasons why this is a month late but excuses, excuses so I'll keep it short. Family, schoolwork prep, lack of motivation, and constant rewriting of this chapter. In order to make up for this the next (few) chapter(s) will be full of extra action and extra plot (I hope), anyways blame me all you want and stuff but I promise to make up for it. Also review of the day "_ _Dang this story is the best one I've read in a long time on this website! Keep up the good work and I can't wait for more!" HaloGamerODST, to which I respond thank you so much I am trying my hardest to make this one of the best stories here for 2 reasons. Reason #1: There is a very serious lack of Halo stories that don't revolve around Spartans (Don't get me wrong I read them a lot) and I've always been fascinated with the ODST, I mean how cool would it be to drop from orbit and just squash a squad of grunts it would be hilarious. Reason #2: A few years back one of the BEST fanfics to ever be written came to an end, and I loved reading it so much and once it came to an end it inspired me to write my own. Now I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention the name of it but I'm sure nobody will mind, The Life by casquis. I highly recommend you guys go read it especially if you have a lot of free time as it does have 230 Chapters. Lets see... was there anything else I needed to mention... (looks at list of things to rant about) ohh ya one last thing... everyone feel free to pitch in and throw some ideas at me as I have a general idea of how this story will go from start to finish but I have no idea how many missions and adventures and peopel the team will go or meet before the end. Anyways I think that covers it all, have a good day everyone._

 _~BattleFrontline signing off_


	8. Chapter 8: Breakout the Team

**Chapter 8: Breakout the Team**

" _She either thinks I'm the biggest idiot in the universe or the bravest idiot in the world."_ I thought as I watched Matilda slip in and out of the shadows, constantly avoiding patrols and spotlights. " _I still can't believe she actually agreed to my crazy plan, a plan that could very well get us all killed."_ Matilda had managed to sneak past the first sniper tower. Meanwhile, I was hanging far back to cover support incase the need arose, but that didn't stop me from worrying about everyone. " _Even during the outbreak of the war, we never really got too worried after all we were just teenagers. Even as the war raged on none of us really changed… I however was an exception."_

"Joe, do see where I'm at?" Matildas voice interrupted my thoughts.

"Ya, I got eyes on you whatcha need?" I replied back.

"Is it clear? I'm going to make a run for the base."

I check her surroundings and all the watchtowers making sure none were looking in Matilda's general position. "You're good but make it quick." I replied knowing that anything could go horribly wrong right now.

"Copy that." She replied as she dashed across the small bit of scorched Earth between her and the base. "I've made it past the base perimeter." Her voice whispered over the comms.

"Good job, I'm right behind you." I replied as I let out a breath I wasn't even aware I was holding. " _Though…"_ I thought " _by the time we get out of here… IF we get out of here, I don't think any of us will be the same."_

A sudden boom brought my thoughts back to the mission at hand.

"Stinger! I need eyes on the fastest/safest route back to you!"

"Turn left, by the way Joe explosions are my department and what happened to the silent approach?" I questioned jokingly.

"Well we wanted to get out of the cells with a bang, Sting." Replied an even more high pitched voice that could only belong to one person.

"Chatterbox? I thought I told Joe to leave you for dead." I replied in a sarcastic tone.

"That stings, Stinger. It really does, in fact-" he started to reply.

"Chatter, just shut it, Stinger glad to see you alive." Replied Sawdust.

"Same here Saw, but Joe why are you taking cover behind a pile of plasma barrels?!"

"Relax, I'm just preparing a going away present for our dear friends for giving Sawdust and Chatterbox such great hospitality."

"Please tell me you aren't doing what I think you're doing."

"Ohh come on, it'll be beautiful and you know it. Now tell me where do we go now?"

"Straight, but be careful, you got what looks like three elites and a dozen grunts coming at you head on."

"Not a problem, Sawdust?"

"Locked and loaded, Joe."

"Let's mow them down."

It was with that cheesy one-liner that caused a small flare of orange to appear on my visor as they pulled their triggers, letting bullets rain on their enemies, tearing through shields, armor, and flesh as if they were nothing. The best part about it was the fact that they never stopped running, they just kept running. It would have been a great scene in an action movie. It reminded me of the time I saw a recording of Smith playing hockey where he just bulldozed through the defensive line and slap shooting a puck into the other team's goal, winning the game.

"Stinger, anyone else?" Joe replied after he and Sawdust finished reloading their guns while running.

"Nope, you got one sniper tower ahead of you on your left but I doubt that'll be a problem."

"You'd be right, Chatterbox?"

"With pleasure!"

Chatterbox continued to run while firing his sniper rifle. Two out of the four shots connected with the alien bird snipers, killing them instantly. Chatterbox had always been one to show off, both in real life and in video games. I remember the time he tried to trickshot us all with a rocket launcher in one of our FPS games and ended up blowing himself up and started to blame the game for ruining his chance for a rocket quad feed. The memory caused me to start to laugh out loud into the comms.

"What's so funny?" replied Chatterbox.

"The fact you missed half your shots, perhaps?" responded Sawdust.

"Or maybe it's the fact you two are arguing when we just sprung you out of an alien prison." Joe joined in.

"No, it's neither of those." I corrected. "I just remembered that time Chatter tried to get that rocket trickshot quad."

"Haha!" the whole team broke out laughing.

"Breaking out the memories are we?" Joe responded.

"Maybe."

"Well we can do that later, we are climbing up to you, get ready to run."

"What about your gift?" I asked.

"Ohh yeah I almost forgot." he replied just as he reached the top of the hill/cliff I was standing on.

"Let me give you guys a hand." I replied as I offered my hand to Joe to help pull him up.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

"Hey can we get a hand too?" Chatterbox asked.

"I'll get Saw." I said.

"I'll get Chatter." Joe said.

After we pulled them up, Joe's gift went off, causing all of us but Joe to jump. The massive purple base which had just been full of angry aliens running around had just been enveloped in an equally massive and angry blue flame. The Spire in the center of the base also started to explode into a bright blue flame, causing the cloaking shield around us to fail, exposing the base to the world around it.

"We need to start moving now." Joe said after the brilliant blue flames began to die out.

"Yeah." Was all we could say as we still stood entranced by the destruction laid out before us.

"Then let's go." He answered almost dragging us away from the destruction we had left in our wake. However, I couldn't help but feel like we were now being watched by both the Covenant and someone else, but I had no idea who.

 _Meanwhile in a Classified ONI Facility_

"Admiral." spoke a quiet voice in the dark shadows of an office miles beneath the surface of the Earth.

"Yes?" Replied an equally quiet voice but this voice was full of power, intelligence, and curiosity.

"Our ships and satellites just picked up a massive explosion in the ruins of a city in the North Eastern Sector."

"There's a war going on BB, there are going to be explosions."

"I know that ma'am but according to our previous logs there are no UNSC or Covenant forces in that area."

"Could just be some gas lines BB."

"Ma'am the explosion was equal to the size of a Covenant outpost and the explosion was also blue, in fact we are getting the footage and analysis now. It was indeed a covenant cloaking spire which was apparently blown up by its own plasma store."

"It could have been a grunt that got scared by a falling brick and accidentally shot the plasma store."

"I too thought that was the case Admiral but... I think you need to look at this image here." Replied BB who threw the image up on the Admiral's personal data pad. The Admiral looked at the image that BB had zoomed in on, there was nothing out of the ordinary with the exception of four ODSTs. BB pulled up the ID tags which stated that they were ONI ODSTs and declared the owners deceased, this caused the Admiral to raise and eyebrow.

"And you say that we never sent anyone into that area?"

"That is correct ma'am no UNSC or ONI operations of ANY kind are being carried out there. There's also the fact that the bodies of owners have been discovered and are currently on a medical convoy. However it would appear that their service records and names are all personally blacklisted, I can't even access them ma'am, only you can."

"So who's currently wearing those suits and what are those men doing there, BB?"

"I actually don't know, Admiral, but as far as I can tell they don't have any implants so I can't identify them. However, I can confirm it is three males and one female."

"This is interesting BB, please copy all information onto my data pad and delete the rest, also get a drone tracking these 'rogues' and we are the only ones to know about this understood?"

"Yes ma'am, will that be all?"

"One more thing BB, lock this room down, not even you are allowed in here unless I say so."

"Of course Admiral." with a small bow the man disappeared. Now alone the Admiral opened the black files.

"Now let's see who you all are…" She whispered with a grin twitching at the edge of her lips.

 _Editors Note: Holy... relics... Have I been gone for quite awhile. Now first off, HAPPY (Very late) NEW YEARS! I hope you all have had a good start to the year. If you haven't then I hope my writing can brighten up your day. Now I just want to say I am really sorry everyone for not posting but a lot has been going on in my life so I have barely had time to so much as even think about this story. I also had lack of_ _inspiration_ _for the story and I wasn't quite sure how I felt about my writing. I personally think my writing skills are horribly. But as I am typing this, I noticed something... this_ _story_ _has had 1,135_ _visitors_ _! So apparently I'm doing something right, but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I'd get over 10 people much less a THOUSAND. You guys are so amazing and as a reward and kind of as a apology I will be accepting your very own OC's! Of course standard OC rules apply (Ex: No super OP OC's) and the due date is March 1st 2018. Please PM me your submissions by then or else I might not read them. That should be it, again so sorry for my_ _disappearance_ _but I am still alive and active(ish) so enjoy the remainder of your day everyone!_

 _~BattleFrontline signing off_


	9. Chapter 9: Ms ONI

**Chapter 9: Ms. ONI**

We had been on the move trying to reach UNSC lines ever since the destruction of the Covenant spire which was almost an hour ago now, however, we had to keep stopping in order to avoid the patrols searching for human survivors. It was because of that we didn't make as much progress as I would have liked but we have to make do with what we got. Plus, we were still alive so honestly, I'd rather be alive and take forever to reach the UNSC line rather than be dead and lost in the once great city we were currently walking through.

"Joe?" Hudson asked, bring me out of the deep thought I had been in ever since we left the covenant outpost.

"Hmm?" I replied.

"Are we there yet?"

"Hudson I swear, if we are going to have to listen to you repeatedly ask 'Are we there yet?' I will shoot you in the foot."

"Sheez, alright just trying to lighten the mood. I mean ever since you busted us out of there we've all been really quiet. It's very… weird, and that's coming from me!"

"Speaking of weird, does anyone else hear that?" popped in Smith.

"Hear what?" asked Matilda.

"I don't know it sounds almost like a fan."

"Wait I hear it too…" responded Hudson. "No it sounds like a thruster."

"Well, I hear a fan."

"And I hear a thruster."

"Would both of you stop arguing," Matilda replied while hitting Hudson in the back of the head earning her a groan of pain from him.

"Guys I think I might know what it is," I said, worried and relieved at the same time.

"Well? What is it?" asked Smith.

"A drone."

"What kinda drone?" he replied.

"No idea, quick into the building," I ordered, and with that, we ran into the building which really shouldn't even be called a building anymore since it only had three and a half walls and a ceiling that in all honesty should have collapsed. "Now we wait."

It took twenty minutes but eventually, the drone was hearable again, and this time we all could hear it. Which meant it was really close now.

"Where is it?" Whispered Chatterbox.

"It's probably a UNSC drone as the Covenant would already be on us by now. However, that also means it's tracking us and might be in our comm system. Everyone use call signs, if this thing is tracking us then it'll know we have UNSC gear we shouldn't and I prefer to avoid going to court after a-" I was interrupted by a boom and a crash.

"Chatterbox!" I exclaimed recognizing his sniper rifle boom.

"I saw something move!" He exclaimed, "I hit it, I think it's the drone!"

"Let me see," I replied, walking over to his position, turning on the flashlights on my helmet. When I reached the remains of the drone, I saw the symbol that was embedded on all of our armors. "We are so screwed."

"Why what's wrong?" asked Stinger.

"Look at this I replied." Holding up the armored plate which had the symbol printed on it.

"ONI…" She replied, however, her voice was nothing but a whisper.

"Wait, THE ONI, as in the one that made the Spartan's?" asked Chatterbox.

"There's only one ONI Chatterbox," replied SawDust.

"Hey I'm just saying those guys are basically the boogie man, I mean you all have heard the rumors about what they do to people."

"And we are using stolen ONI armor and weapons AND we just shot down one of their drones." SawDust added. "What do you think's going to happen to US?!"

"The drone probably had a direct feed to a ONI computer meaning, that this has all been recorded and probably sent to someone who's going to fly out here and grab us and make us disappear." I added in.

"So we wait here and die or we try to reach UNSC lines and go to straight into ONI's hands." Stinger said reviewing our options.

"Actually that last part isn't true…" I responded.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if ONI told the UNSC that some random teens managed to steal their equipment and use it. The UNSC would begin to question ONI and possibly start an investigation, which is the last thing ONI would want."

"Let me get this straight." Chatterbox replied. "If we get to the UNSC we'll be able to walk off, scot free?"

"No, ONI has eyes and ears everywhere. We'd have time to ditch the gear and run into the refugee shelters and pray ONI doesn't know who we are. It's a slim chance but it's better than disappearing." I clarified.

"I mean… that sounds like our best option." replied Stinger after what felt like an eternity of silence.

"We are at least two miles out of the nearest UNSC forces." Replied SawDust.

"Let's run for it then." answered Chatterbox.

"Alright everyone, prepare for the runs of your lives." I responded as we all began running out of the building.

It took us almost an hour, thanks to all the gear we had strapped to our backs and the occasional hide and seek games with Covenant forces but we managed to make it to UNSC forces. By the time we got there we were exhausted and we were desperate to put all of this behind us.

"You there! The ODST's!" yelled what looked like a young lieutenant over the thundering of a nearby Jeep while pointing in our direction.

We all froze, we didn't know what to do either, Option 1: We go over had risk this being an ONI trap. Option 2: We ignore him and get out of there. Before we had a chance to respond, the lieutenant walked over to us.

"Can we help you Lieutenant?" I asked, trying to sound older and tougher.

"Yes you can, all special forces are suppose to be in a briefing right now. Why aren't you there?" He replied.

"We just got back from no man's land and lost communications with base, we probably missed the memo."

"I see, in that case they are meeting in the (only) intact building just behind me. I suggest you go in there now before they finish."

"Thanks Lieutenant, we'll head there now." I responded, and with a simple nod, the lieutenant walked back into the crowd of soldiers.

"We need to make a run for it now." Whispered Sawdust over the comms.

"If we leave now someone's going to get suspicious, especially if that Lieutenant is in ONI's pocket." I replied.

"True…"

"Let's just go ahead attend the briefing, that way we look like we fit in and when we disburse, we leave. Agreed?"

"Agreed." They all replied.

"Alright, follow my lead." I replied as we walked into the building.

I was the first one in the doors, the doors were made out of steel probably put there when the UNSC showed up. Fortunately they were sliding doors so I didn't need to open them, but as the doors opened and as I walked in I noticed it was unusually dark in there. Once everyone was in the building I decided to ask the question that was burning in the back of all our heads.

"Is it just me or is a bit too dark in here for a briefing?" I asked, and sure enough the second I uttered the final word the doors slammed shut and sealed themselves which sealed us in turn. "It's a trap."

"Of course it's a trap we are dealing with ONI here!" Replied Chatterbox.

"Chatterbox cut the chatter." I replied, worried about was about to unfold.

"There's no need for code names here." replied a voice in the darkness. The middle of the room started to move, since it was dark we only saw the shadow but it was big like a table. The table had colored buttons and displays flashing all sorts of color, but the center of the table started to glow blue along with what appeared to be a light over the table. Then a figure appeared in between the two blue lights, however, because the display color blue so it was hard to make out any details but we could all tell it was a female. "Of course, Joe... you and the rest of your team: Smith, Hudson, Matilda. Have always loved your war games."

"Who are you?" replied Smith

"I am ONI and that all you need to know."

"I take it you're the head then?" I asked

"Seems you do catch on quick, for a bunch of teens."

"Hey, you don't know what-" Started Hudson.

"I know exactly what you've been through… all of you." She replied focusing her eyes on me.

"Then why haven't you killed us yet?" I replied, I knew all too well the fact that ONI does things quickly and quietly. She was taunting us, she wanted something.

"You four have confiscated ONI gear which is a very big crime." She started letting her words sink in. "But we can't afford the UNSC to know about this incident of course we could just make you all disappear…"

"But?" I replied trying to figure out where this lady was going.

"You four were able to simply take and use the gear without encountering any of the countermeasures we have in place on those suits and we calculated the odds of your survival from the very first moment you out on that armor Joe. Let's just say the odds were never in any of your guy's favors but none the less you came out alive."

"So? That's what we excel in." Replied Hudson, a bit too confidently.

"You four have spent a lot of time 'training' together whether it's on those video games you all play or those sports and simulation events. You all have already developed a trust it takes military units years to develop, so you all have the potential to be a part of something bigger. I want you all to join ONI."

"I'll die before I-" Smith started to reply before Matilda put her hand on his shoulder signalling for him to cool off.

"What's the catch?" I replied, knowing that ONI basically wrote the book on catches and loopholes.

"If you accept my offer you will be put into immediate service and due to the nature of our situation you will be Black Ops, no one will know you exist nor will you reach out to anyone showing your alive or explaining what has transpired here and or in the field."

"And if we don't?" I asked, fearing I already knew the answer.

"I think you already know what will happen if you don't." She replied.

"Joe we are dealing with the Devil here, we can't trust ONI." Smith spoke once she had finished.

"But at the same time we'll all die here." respond Hudson.

"We are dead either way." answered Matilda.

"But we'll die fighting if we take her up on her offer." Hudson replied.

While they began to argue I couldn't help but stare at the ONI woman, she was hiding something… there was something she wasn't telling us. You don't just give 18 year olds a job in Black Ops just because they stole your gear and survived a few engagements. There was something else in the works here, but she had poker face that would rival even the best in Vegas.

"Guys, we need to take the offer. It's the only way we'll ever even think about surviving another day." I spoke up.

"But Joe-" Started Smith.

"Do you guys trust me?"

"Well ya…"

"Then I need you too trust me now." I replied still looking into Ms. ONI's projection.

"Joe I swear if we die because of you, I'm going to haunt you."

"Relax Smith, I got this." I replied. "We'll take your offer Ms. ONI."

"I knew you'd make the smart decision, now we need to edit your files." She answered. "Your squad designation is Tiger Squad correct?"

"Correct."

"You all 'happy' with your code names?"

I looked around and everyone nodded showing their approval with the code names.

"Now what is your code name Joe."

"Call me… Blade."

"Blade it is then. Now normally this is determined by rank and such but I'm making an exception here, what's the chain of command in your squad?"

I looked around and saw the rest of the squad was doing the same, we never had a true leader in all the times we've played game before. We always sorta switched up based on the scenario. I was the strategist so I typical lead more, but Smith was the kinda guy you could get behind, Matilda was the kinda person who preferred more of a direct approach, and Hudson was the trolling expert.

"No offense Joe, but I say Smith." answered Hudson after a long period of silence and staring at one another.

"I say Joe." Matilda replied.

"I also say Joe." Smith said.

"Well in that case I change my vote to Joe." replied Hudson.

"Guys you sure about this?" I answered, surprised at the fact they choose me.

"Come on dude, your like the smartest one here." replied Hudson.

"You got the strategy." answered Matilda.

"I trust you." Smith replied.

"Alright, I'll do my best." I replied with a nod at not just my friends but now my fellow brothers and sister in arms.

"Now that we've settled that, I'd like to speak to Joe… alone." Ms. ONI replied, while the doors reopened. "Leave us, go and requip yourselves."

"Joe?" asked Matilda, obviously worried about leaving me here alone with Ms. ONI.

"I'll be fine, don't worry about me." I replied, keeping my gaze locked on the hologram of our new boss as they walked out of the building causing the doors too once again close.

"Quite the bunch." She spoke once the doors had resealed.

"That they are, now you didn't just hold me back so we could talk about them. What do you want?"

"Straight to the point… good, now since you are now under ONI jurisdiction lets clear things up. You will address me as Admiral or ma'am, you will also follow your orders without question, and you are responsible for the actions of your squad."

"Fair enough… Admiral."

"When you arrive at the base you and your team will be tested and evaluated, but until then, do you think your team is ready for this?"

"Admiral with all due respect, you have our files. You said it yourself, we have a lot of trust in each other and I know my friends. We are ready for anything."

"Heroics will not get you far in this world... alive at least, remember that. With that said, the Covenant are about to launch an attack on the base you are currently standing in. I am tasking you and your squad with defending that base until you are ordered otherwise."

"Noted, we will hold the line Admiral. Whether you believe it or not we are ready for this."

"Gear up and brief your team." With that the Admiral disappeared, causing the doors behind me to opened allowing me to leave.

"We'll hold the line… right?" I whispered to myself as I turned around heading out the doors, wondering how we got into this mess.

It didn't take long to find the munitions depot as pretty much every soldier was heading there to grab weapons and ammo. Once I got there, I started looking around for my squad. Since I was dressed in my ODST gear, people naturally steered clear of me allowing me to look around for my team easier.

As I was looking around for my team I felt someone tapping on my shoulder and to my surprise I found Matilda there pointing in the direction of the rest of the squad. Which just happened to be in the corner of the depot so it wasn't all that busy there. As Matilda and I approached they noticed us and waved us over. As we approached I noticed that Smith and Hudson had taken off their helmets and had laid them on a crate between the two of them, with Matilda joining them. Not wanting to be an oddball I also took off my helmet but I tucked it under my arm, instead of putting it on the crate.

"What's the word… Blade. Man that's going to take some getting use too." asked Hudson.

"We are being tasked with defending this base until we are told otherwise. After that we are being shipped off some ONI black site to be evaluated and trained."

"That explains why everyone here is either packing ammo or packing supplies." Smith replied.

"Hold on a ONI Black Site? Dude that is a death trap. They'll kill us the second we arrive!" exclaimed Hudson.

"If we disobey we die, look she wants us alive for some reason. She could have killed us countless times now and no one would have known . But here we are with an actual mission." I answered. Just in time for the sirens to go off, signaling that it was time to head to war. "It's showtime ladies!" I shouted as I put on helmet and went over to a supply crate loaded with BR and pistol ammo along with a few grenades. As I helped myself, as my team did the same. Once we were fully loaded we started running to the front of the base.

"Tiger Squad come in." Ordered a graveled voice on our comms.

"Tiger Squad here, what's the situation?" I replied trying to sound older and tougher, however, I don't think it worked.

"You are being assigned to the 3rd and final line of defense within the base walls where you will cover the retreat of the other two lines, you got that?

"Got it." I replied, switching over to the team comm channel. "You heard him everyone. Chatterbox, I want you in a good sniper position so you can target high value targets and mark hostiles using the spotter function. Sawdust and Stinger I want you guys to find cover on the ground since you guys are more close range and kill anything that isn't human that gets within firing range. I'll be up on the wall providing covering fire and helping pick off anyone Chatterbox marks. Everyone know the plan?"

"Yes." They replied in union.

"Good, let's give these alien scumbags a warm welcome."

"Horrah!"

With that we broke up and headed to our respective positions and prepared ourselves for what was probably going to be a dragged out battle, but we had orders and we were going to follow them. After all we did just sign a deal with the devil and if you break a deal with the devil, the devil will break you.

"I'm in position, give me a sitrep." I asked, once I managed to make it to the top of the wall and get situated.

"Stinger and Sawdust in position and ready to kill." Replied Stinger.

"Blade, I'm in position and I have a visual on the first line. I also have eyes on the hostiles." Answered Chatter.

"What are they packin, Chatter?" I asked.

"Let's see here… they have what looks like a dozen wraiths, at least two dozen ghosts, a couple of hunters, and a battalion of ugly, angry aliens."

"So… the usual?"

"Pretty much."

"Except we don't have any cars around this time." Added Stinger.

"Hey we got an army with us this time." Retorted Sawdust. "I'd much rather have an army with plenty of weapons and ammo over some abandoned cars."

"Hey, did anyone read the weather forecast for today?" Chatterbox brought up.

"Sorry, I wasn't able to because we were fighting for our lives!" Responded Sawdust.

"Well I think there's a storm inbound."

'What makes you saw that?"

Then before Chatterbox could respond, BOOM, the sound of thunder was unmistakable.

"Looks like we got two upcoming storms, everyone bunker down." I responded, as I looked down the sights at the oncoming storms.

 _Editor's Note: YAY! More chapters! PARTY! I am still alive my loyal followers! I am terribly sorry for the lack of uploads but life got busy, I hope this longer chapter makes up for it. I revived ONE submission for the OC drafting so congrats! I hope to include him soon but I'm currently outta town and am posting this on my tablet rather than my computer so this has been very complicated lol. Thank you so much everyone for ready my story and I hope I can keep this story alive for a long time. As always feel free to PM me with questions, comments, concerns and or leave a review! I love reading all those, and you know what? Heck you could even share this story with friends and family that you know might enjoy this story. Anyways that's everything I wanted to talk about so have a good day everyone!_

 _~BattleFrontline signing off_


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